12 November 2008, Belize.

Our Barn owl had been active during the night, which is I suppose normal for an owl and was reported flying around the ship. Occasionally he/she settled on the mast on the bow which is the best look out place of the whole ship. By 5 am. he/she had found a place on the staircase balcony behind the portside bridge wing and was watching the approach to Belize with great interest. The moment the sun rose the owl took off for land and was not seen again. It all worked out in this case for the bird and hopefully he will find the Belizean mice as tasty as those in Cuba.

We were joined today by the Norwegian Pearl who had the pilot an hour after us, as the ship had an arrival time of 0800 hrs. That gave me the chance to anchor in my favorite spot which is in direct line with the tender dock. Thus the shortest distance to travel for the shore tenders. The anchorage area is very shallow but very large. A convoy of a 100 ships would easily find anchorage over there and thus it is not that critical where the ship drops anchor. That gave me the chance to let the chief officer do the anchoring as part of his training for becoming a future captain. My company encourages it to have the Chief and the navigators handle the ship when safely possible. That is not always possible due to wind or tight quarters but when there is a “plan B” available then I am all for it. Here in Belize plan B is the vast area that we can use for anchoring and if the maneuver would overshoot, it would not matter as there is plenty space.

However, also for the chief, the challenge was to anchor the ship on the mark. The trick is that you have to take into account, the drift of the ship caused by wind and current, and the reduction in speed, so that the bow comes to an exact standstill on the anchorage position and then when the anchor is let go, the ship starts to come astern so that the chain is payed out in a nice straight line without loops and kinks. As there was little wind today, the drift was not that much either, so the main challenge of the whole exercise was lining up the ship in the right direction and reducing speed in the right amounts so that the Veendam’s momentum would be zero “on the spot”.

It all worked out nicely and we were at anchor at exactly 7 am. ready to unload the Veendam guests. Most of them seemed to be very eager as the Lido was filled to capacity by that time. The weather was glorious today, bright sunshine with just a gentle breeze blowing over the ship so maybe that accounted for it.

In Belize we use fast shore tenders, due to the distance from ship to shore and the funny thing with these shore tenders is that they are all of different shape and sizes. There are quite a few of them, enough to service at least four mega liners but I have counted at least 10 different types. From the almost standard monohull cabin cruiser that can handle about 40 guests, to big catamaran boats with room for up to 150. The latter ones are also quite often used for tours as they can pick up the guests directly from the ship and so ensure a smooth flow for those going ashore. The guests do not have to go ashore first, and then pick up their tour as is quite often the case in other anchor ports.

Last winter there was a lot of excitement about building two cruise terminals, and because each owner wanted to be the only cruise terminal to be completed, there was also some friction as well. Now with the expected down turn in guest numbers, I have not heard anything about the progress of the terminals anymore. And while coming in, I did not see much happening in the allocated areas.

We left nicely on time, to retrace our steps through the winding passageway of the Reefs of Belize, and we were outside just before 7 pm. Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas and it will be an early arrival as the Tikal and Copan flight tour will leave with daylight. It should be another glorious day.